Political Economy category archive

Driftglass sums up the epistomological underpinnings of Ayn Rand’s “Objectivism”:

Survival of the fittest–and I’m the fittest!

The new Republican trickle down:

Passenger traffic at Norfolk International Airport is down nearly 5 percent through the first half of 2013, putting it on pace for the slowest travel year in more than a decade.

The dip marks the resumption of a downward trend in local traffic over the past several years as the airline industry has consolidated, reduced flights and raised prices. Passenger movement at the airport had increased in 2012 for the first time since 2007, rising about 3 percent.

Wayne Shank, the airport’s executive director, attributed the recent drop to fewer government-related flights because of the automatic federal spending cuts known as sequestration that began March 1.

Via BartCop.

Process servers’ job prospects wane in Tampa Bay:

Seven out of the ten local homes sold last month were non-distressed, the highest rate of conventional sales in five years. As the cheap foreclosures and short sales that once dominated the market dry up, the broader market’s prices will continue to climb.

Though cash buyers remain king of the market, buying up 42 percent of the homes sold last month, their share of the local sales slid for the seventh month in a row. Cash-rich investors from hedge funds to local flippers are finding fewer home deals that could leave them room to earn a profit.

Anything that keeps hedge funds out of a marketplace is a good thing.

It may be out of the headlines, but the dance continues.

A bit better, but still significantly above 300k.

The number of claims in the four weeks ended Aug. 3 declined to 335,500 on average, the least since November 2007, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. Compared with a week earlier, claims rose by 5,000 to 333,000, in line with the median forecast of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

(snip)

Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments decreased by about 48,800 to 1.52 million in the week ended July 20.

The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 2.3 percent in the week ended July 27, today’s report showed.

Forty-five states and territories reported a decline in claims, while eight reported an increase. These data are reported with a one-week lag.

In the Bangor Daily News, Eric Collins reflects on the recent student load bill in Congress and why it included so many bad ideas.

It’s all about ROI, folks, and not ROI on educaton–ROI on the loans.

Yet how is college supposed to become affordable?

There are plenty of solutions. When we have the greatest concentration of wealth in our nation’s history in the hands of a few and a bloated military budget used to fund the destructive atrocities of violence and war in the name of U.S. global hegemony, then it is clear we have the money to fund higher education. What prevents us from doing that is our priorities.

Prioritizing the interests of the wealthy over those of the masses is reflective of deeper, structural and ideological problems in our society.

Robyn Blumner:

Call it the rise of the “precariat,” from “precarious,” the most insecure workers in an economy and a much talked about group among labor economists, most prominently Guy Standing at the University of London. The precariat is a growing proportion of the U.S. labor market. There are more than 10 million people in the United States who work poorly paid, dead-end jobs and are in desperate need of organizing to change their circumstances.

(snip)

The industry’s excuse on wages is to claim that it provides a stepping stone to upward mobility — a whopper as big as a CEO compensation package.

Read it.

And, while you’re at it, read this too.

Somewhat better, still well over 300k.

Applications (INJCJC) for unemployment insurance payments declined by 19,000 to 326,000 in the week ended July 27, the fewest since January 2008, from a revised 345,000 the prior week, the Labor Department reported today in Washington.

(snip)

The less-volatile four-week moving average declined to 341,250 last week, a two-month low, from 345,750.

The number of people continuing to collect jobless benefits dropped by 52,000 to 2.95 million in the week ended July 20. That doesn’t include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Bloomberg’s experts maintain their streak.

Whenever you hear someone complain about a “pension crisis,” remind yourself that employees did not cause a crisis.

Employers did, by not preparing for the pensions they promised.

It’s not the pensioners who should be punished.

It’s the employers who had promises to keep–and didn’t.

But that’s not the way the world works, is it, now?

A. Exactly.

Republicans have decided that Oliver Twist depicts Utopia and Fagin, the ideal governor.

Patrick Kerkstra writes at Philly dot com:

In too many Philadelphia circles, there’s a view that the answer to the city’s poverty pandemic is to just open more coffee shops, more restaurants, more yoga studios.

Not just Philadelphia’s Babbitts, but Babbitts in many other cities are falling into the same trap.

A strong economy does not grow from buying stuff; it grows from making stuff, then selling it.

Also, hipsters are ironically annoying.

For all practical puposes, no change.

Jobless claims rose by 7,000 to 343,000 in the week ended July 20 from a revised 336,000 the prior period, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington.

(snip)

Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments fell by about 21,300 to 1.62 in the week ended July 6.

The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits dropped to 2.3 percent in the week ended July 13 from 2.4 percent the prior week, today’s report showed.

A little better, but still in the same ballpark:

Jobless claims dropped by 24,000 to 334,000 in the week ended July 13, the fewest since early May, from a revised 358,000 the prior period, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington.

(snip)

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, fell to 346,000 last week from 351,250.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits climbed by 91,000 to 3.11 million in the week ended July 6, the most in five months. That caused the unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits to rise to 2.4 percent, the highest since early April, from 2.3 percent.

Bloomberg’s “experts” once again–oh, never mind, wish I could get a job where always being wrong is okay.

It always comes back to theft of labor.

Not good.

First-time claims rose by 16,000 to 360,000 in the week ended July 6 from a revised 344,000, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington.

(snip)

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, climbed to 351,750 last week from 345,750.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 24,000 to 2.98 million in the week ended June 29. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

One constant: Bloomberg’s “experts” maintain their track record of being the people to bet against at the track.

Boots on the ground.

Furloughs of 3,550 civilian employees at MacDill Air Force Base begin Monday, as base leaders fight to maintain morale even as workers lose at least $9.2 million in pay.

Most of the employees — about 2,200 — work for the 6th Air Mobility Wing, which is MacDill’s host unit. Another 900 work at U.S. Special Operations Command and 450 more at U.S. Central Command, the nation’s two premier combat commands.

Nothing can ease unemployment more than more unemployment.

It’s the “misery loves company” theory of economics.